


You Matter To Me

by kiwifeather



Category: Iron Man (Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Sick Tony Stark, Sickfic, budding relationship? i guess?, not much real substance, uhhhh I think that's it haha
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-31
Updated: 2019-08-31
Packaged: 2020-10-03 22:51:12
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,448
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20460818
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kiwifeather/pseuds/kiwifeather
Summary: I'm bad at summaries, but basically Tony is sick and tries to hide it from Pepper because he wants to impress her (he doesn't last very long). Takes place somewhere between Ironman 1 and 2, when they're still dancing around each other but slowly moving in the relationship direction. Everything is still new and awkwardly sweet.





	You Matter To Me

**Author's Note:**

> I've never written Pepperony before and wanted to give it a try, hopefully it's not too bad! I just had to show some love to my favorite couple, gah they're just the cutest.
> 
> *Title taken from the musical Waitress*

“Tony!”

Pepper rapped her knuckles against the door three times in quick succession, feeling as if she could explode with frustration at any second. She checked her watch and let out a long-suffering sigh when she noticed that they were running much later than she had originally anticipated. When it came to Tony Stark, being fashionably late was practically unavoidable, that much she understood.

But being almost two hours late was just unacceptable, even if you’re Ironman.

She tapped her foot and counted to five under her breath while she waited, and huffed angrily at the continued lack of response from the other side of the door. She anxiously smoothed out her navy gown where it had bunched in the middle from all the agitated pacing she’d been doing for the last twenty minutes. Counted to five again. 

“Anthony Edward Stark, if this door doesn’t open in the next thirty seconds I’m going to break it down myself, do you hear me?” Pepper violently rattled the door knob for emphasis.

“And I’m wearing four-inch heels, so I could do some real damage!” She added menacingly.

Nothing.

“Okay, that’s it, you’d better not be anywhere near the door unless you want a face full of wood!” She backed up to the other side of the hall, trying to make it seem like she was making good on her threat. Was she really going to kick the door in? Of course not. She wouldn’t have to, because Tony was going to call her bluff any second and open it himself.

Hopefully.

She stood silently for a few moments, staring at the door through narrowed eyes as if she could turn the lock through sheer force of will. 

She was gearing herself up to yell again when it suddenly swung open to reveal Tony, dressed to the nines and wearing a charming smile as if he hadn’t just spent the last hour ignoring her frantic texts and distressed calls. She took in his appearance, approving of his crisply pressed navy suit and shiny diamond cufflinks and quickly noting the emptiness of the pocket on his chest.

“Hey, Pep,” he said innocently while he winced at the bright light streaming in from the hallway. “You ready?” 

Pepper quickly crossed the hall and ignored him as she strode through the doorway, into his dimly-lit room, and headed briskly for the closet. Tony watched, amusement that bordered on confusion crossing his features.

“Uh, shouldn’t we be leaving? Or did you spend twenty minutes banging on my door for nothing?” He could hear shuffling in his closet where she had disappeared. When she didn’t reply he continued to fill the silence while he ambled slowly in her direction.

“I mean, I know I’m not one to rush you of all people, but you seemed pretty insistent. Y’know, threatening to break down my door and all.” He approached the closet door and peeked his head inside.

“What are you even doi--mmph?” Pepper appeared in front of him and pressed two fingers against his mouth, abruptly cutting him off. She produced a silky gray piece of cloth, folded it elegantly, and carefully positioned it in his suit pocket. She finished it off with a light pat to smooth out any wrinkles.

“You forgot your pocket square,” she said tersely, not bothering to mask her annoyance. 

But she let her hand linger on his chest, stiff gaze softening as she met his eyes. Now that she was close she could clearly see that he looked exhausted, bluish bags decorated the space under his eyes and there was a little patch of scruff on his jaw that he must have missed while shaving. Half of his face had a faint fabric imprint on it, like he’d recently fallen asleep on the couch, and his cheeks were slightly flushed like he’d just gotten back from a run. Most noticeably, his hair was sticking up in odd places-- not at all perfectly gelled up like it usually was. Pepper’s mouth tugged down at the corners, all thoughts of the important event forgotten as a wave of concern washed over her. 

“Tony?” She began, hesitant. Unsure if it was even her place to ask. 

(But if she didn’t, who would? _ You’re all I have too, you know _echoed in her ears).

“Are you… feeling okay? Please don’t take this the wrong way, but you look a little off.”

Tony gulped, adopting an air of ease as he attempted to wave off her worry.

“All good Pep, nothing to see here.” He smiled and nodded curtly in the direction of the door. “We should probably get going, Happy is gonna take off without us for making him wait so long.” 

He joked as he tried to make his way out of the room, but was stopped when Pepper grabbed his wrist and gently tugged him back towards her. Butterflies erupted in her stomach at the close contact, but she quickly tamped them down and moved to find out if what she theorized was correct. She brought her hand up to cup his cheek and clucked when she found it to be slightly too-warm to be normal. Tony stood surprisingly still, his eyes fluttered closed, and she felt him lean minutely into her touch.

“Tony.”

“Mhmm?”

“You’re sick.”

Tony blinked his eyes open and scoffed as he took a half-step backwards, moving out of her reach.

“What? C’mon Pep, that’s ridiculous. Stark men don’t get sick,” he cleared his throat inconspicuously. “Now let’s go, or I’m telling Happy that it’s your fault we’re so late.” 

He tried to reach the door again, but Pepper effectively stopped him before he could get as far as the hallway. She looped her arm in his (“No, wait, Pepper--) and marched them right over to the bed while she dug through her purse for her phone and sent a text to Happy, telling him they wouldn’t be needing him tonight after all and apologizing profusely for the trouble. 

She untangled her arm from his, put her hands on his shoulders and gently pushed down. 

“Sit.”

“Pepper, please,” and despite his half-hearted protests, he immediately folded under her urging and plopped down onto the bed. He looked up at her with pleading eyes. “I swear, I’m fine. Get a couple drinks in me and I’ll be even better.” He flashed a bright smile with an accompanying wink at her but she remained unfazed and began to unceremoniously tug his suit jacket off. 

“Hush Tony, we both know that’s not true,” she tutted. “Now take your jacket off and I’ll hang it up while you get changed into something more comfortable.” 

He paused while in the middle of shrugging out of his sleeves. “Something more comfortable, you say?” Tony wiggled his eyebrows suggestively, and Pepper scoffed. 

“As if.” She aimed a pointed look in his direction. 

“You’re my boss, Tony, not my boyfriend,” she reminded him, her tone dripping with disapprovement. However, she couldn’t hide the smile tugging at her lips and so she turned away, jacket in hand, and headed for the closet. As Pepper searched for its hanger she heard Tony rummaging around in his dresser before hearing the bathroom door click shut. She was straightening the the jacket’s sleeves when she overheard muffled coughs through the wall, wincing in sympathy at how painful they sounded. She switched the closet light off and walked back into the room to find Tony dressed in sweatpants and a grey t-shirt. He was sitting on the edge of the bed, tentatively sipping a glass of water while his other hand clutched at his chest, fingers fumbling around the arc-reactor. His brow was knitted in concentration, seemingly focused on keeping his breathing steady. Pepper slipped her high-heels off and padded softly across the room so as not to startle him into another coughing fit. He eyed her warily as she approached, still taking small sips of water, and carefully nodded when she pointed questioningly to the empty space next to him.

She sat gently by his side, looking on in sympathy as he set the glass down on his nightstand. Tony cleared his throat, wincing in pain, and rubbed at it a bit before he turned to her and broke the silence.

“Aw, give the pity-eyes a rest, Potts. It’s not a big deal. Just a little cough, really.” 

Pepper hitched an eyebrow, unconvinced. “You happen to have a fever, Tony,” she gestured to their surroundings as she continued,

“And it’s practically pitch-dark in this room, which means you must have a painful headache too. Am I wrong?” She waited for a response, eyebrow still raised, almost daring him to contradict her. 

Tony opened his mouth in what started out as a protest, but gave up when she shot him a stern look (she was Pepper Potts, she was never wrong). He slumped forward, placed his elbows on his knees and rested his face in his hands.

“No,” he grumbled, voice muffled by his hands. 

“You’re not wrong. You’re scarily right, actually. What are you, Potts, some kind of mind-reader?” He sighed before rambling on.

“What’s next, you gonna tell me next week’s lotto numbers? Not that I need the money, but it’d be cool to win, a good story to tell..” He trailed off, face still hidden. She could tell he was trying to deflect, that this was his attempt to take her attention off of his uncharacteristically vulnerable state, but Pepper wasn’t going to let him get away with it. She looked at his hunched over form and felt a pang of sympathy. 

_ Help him, _ she suddenly thought, and the notion took her by surprise. 

That wasn’t her job. 

Her job was to get him to the right places and introduce him to the right people, and clean up the messes that he made for himself at least once a week. Her job most definitely did not include consoling him when felt under the weather. Still, she moved her hand to rest hesitantly on his back, and rubbed small circles in what she hoped was a comforting manner. Sure, she was used to taking care of her boss when it came to press appearances and SI events, but this… this was new. This was different.

Tony tensed at the contact at first but she felt him quickly relax under her touch, which surprised her. He wasn’t really a touchy-feely kind of person and she knew he preferred his space, especially when his guard was so obviously down. Still, he didn’t make any move to stop her, so they sat in peaceful silence for a few minutes-- him hunched forward and rubbing tiredly at his temples, and her continuing to trace patterns into his back. 

After coughing quietly into his hand, Tony turned his head to the side and peered up at her, his gaze reserved and uncertain. 

(and maybe a bit.. longing?)

“Pepper..” he said her name delicately, his voice low. “You don’t… you don’t have to do this. I can take care of myself. Hard to believe, I know, but I did survive before you came along. You can go.” 

Pepper smiled and laughed discreetly while rolling her eyes, but stayed exactly where she was. “‘Survived before I came along,’ sure you did.” She playfully knocked her knee against his. 

“Happy told me all the stories, Tony, and I think it’d be best for both of us if I stay for a bit. That way I can stop you from doing anything stupid, like shutting yourself in your lab the minute I leave this room and probably passing out down there from fever-induced exhaustion,” she finished drily. 

Tony smirked.

“You know me too well, Pepper Potts.”

“Unfortunately.”

That got a quiet laugh out of him, but the moment was lost when his laughter hitched and swiftly turned into wracking coughs. He sat up and grasped at his chest while he tried to get a handle on his breathing again. Pepper leaned across him and grabbed the glass from earlier off of his nightstand, pressed it into his shaky hands as she looked on in concern, and clasping her own hands worriedly in her lap.

“Tony,” she started softly, and he met her eyes in acknowledgement as he continued to gulp down water. “Why didn’t you tell me you were sick? I would have stopped bothering you hours ago. I could have called the whole thing off.”

Tony finished his drink and set the empty glass down, sighing deeply as he ran a hand through his hair before he closed his eyes and answered her question.

“Look, Pep, you’ve been telling me about this event for weeks. You sent a text every other day, ‘don’t forget about next Friday’, ‘Tony, this is really important, please don’t forget’.” He paused to open his eyes, gaze locked on hers. “I… didn’t want to let you down. Again.” 

Pepper’s heart fluttered at bit at the unabashed admission. She didn’t say anything, too shocked at his honesty, but mostly by the fact that he cared that much about what she thought of him. About her. She felt a blush creep up her cheeks and willed for it to disappear.

Tony continued, her reaction thankfully going unnoticed. 

“So I wasn’t about to let anything stop me from going, not when it meant so much to you. I figured I’d just power through it, y’know? Get a bit of a buzz to distract from the headache, a little whisky to help with the sore throat, schmooze some folks and call it a night,” Tony finished proudly, obviously pleased with his plan. Pepper, on the other hand, couldn’t believe what she’d just heard. All of the warmth she’d felt towards him previously was swiftly washed away and replaced with incredulity. She swore that in all her years (admittedly, not that many, but still) she’d never met someone with so little self-preservation skills.

“Anthony Stark!” She lightly swatted his arm in disbelief, earning a disgruntled ‘hey!’ from him. “That’s not how you should be taking care of yourself and you know it.”

She poked him in the side for good measure, unable to keep herself from feeling fond of the human-disaster that sat next to her.

_ Such _a disaster. Tenderness bubbled up inside her, all of her feelings from the past year deciding to make an impromptu appearance.

“Ow--what-- I’ve done it before!” He said indignantly, while grabbing Pepper’s hand to keep her from poking him again. “And you know what, Potts? It’s always worked out just… fine…” he trailed off at the intense look on her face and leaned back sheepishly, putting space between them but still holding her hand tightly in his.

“You look like you’re about to punch me.”

Pepper chewed on her bottom lip as she thought about her next words with care. She met his stare head-on, eyes full of unburdened admiration.

“Actually, I was about to kiss you,” she said, as if were obvious.

With that, she leaned forward and closed the distance between them, cupping his cheek with one hand and wrapping the other around the back of his neck. They kissed, long and slow and deliciously soft. 

They broke apart after a minute.

(One wonderful, wonderful minute)

Tony gazed at her breathlessly, his lips still slightly parted and dizzy with endearment. 

“That was… nice.”

Pepper laughed, her hand still tenderly cupping his face. She rubbed her thumb softly across his cheek, noticing that he was still flushed with fever. 

As sweet as the moment had been, they guy probably needed to sleep.

“You should lie down, Tony,” she instructed while she gently nudged him back onto the pillows behind him.

“Hey, wait, was it really that bad of a kiss?” He joked nervously as he swung his legs up on the bed and stuffed them under the fluffy comforter. “You’re already trying to get rid of me? That might be a new record.”

Smirking, Pepper stood up and walked over to the dresser with the intent of borrowing a pair of pj’s.

“Actually,” she called over her shoulder while rummaging through the top drawer, “I think I’m gonna stay for a bit, just to make sure you get the rest you obviously need.” She turned around to face him, a pair of red pajama bottoms and a faded black t-shirt in her arms.

“If those bags under your eyes are anything to go by, I’m gonna be here for a while,” she added playfully. 

Tony clutched at his chest and gasped in mock astonishment.

“Low blow, Pep.” He slowly shook his head. “It’s mean to make fun of sick people, you know,” he huffed at her, amusement lacing his voice. She winked at him as she headed for the bathroom to change, closing the door firmly behind her.

Two minutes later she walked out looking _ unfairly _good in his old clothes, holding a paper cup in one hand and two orange pills in the other. 

“Fever reducer,” she explained while handing him the goods. “It’ll get rid of that headache, too, and hopefully knock you out for a few hours.”

Tony gratefully accepted the medication and swallowed them both in one go. He settled in among his fluffy pillows while he tucked the comforter up to his chin, shivering ever-so-slightly. Pepper plucked a downy throw off of the armchair by the window and made her way back to the bed to cautiously situate herself in the empty space to his right, switching off all the lamps but the one next to her. She stayed on top of the comforter and draped the throw over her instead while leaning her back up against the headboard. She left a good amount of space between them, feeling a bit uncertain of her choice to stay now that she was effectively in his bed. 

Now what?

They sat in bashful silence before Tony spoke up, sleep blurring his voice.

“Wanna see if there’s anything good on T.V?” He suggested while blearily grabbing the remote off the nightstand and offering it to her. “I’ll even let ya choose, since I’m probably going to konk out here in a few minutes anyways,” he said with a tired shrug.

Pepper accepted it with a smile and flipped through a few channels before eventually settling on the 24 hour news station. 

“Well geez, now I really have no hope of staying awake. You really watch this stuff?” Tony poked his tongue out in pretend disgust. “It’s so… boring.”

“Some of us like to know what’s going on in the rest of the world, Tony,” Pepper laughed. “Just go to sleep so I don’t have to hear you complain anymore.” She patted his leg good naturedly.

“Well now I’m gonna stay awake all night just to spite you.”

  


Five minutes into a segment about dust storms in Australia, Tony felt his eyelids begin to droop. Despite his earlier threat he snuggled deeper into his blankets and rolled onto his side, his body angled towards Pepper. He sighed deeply, only coughing a little bit, and closed his eyes. 

Two minutes later, when Pepper was almost certain he’d fallen asleep, she jumped slightly at the unexpected feeling of his hand reaching for hers. She glanced down at him in confusion. His eyes were still closed, but his lips curved up into a small, pleased smile once he found her hand. He laced his fingers in hers and squeezed gently.

“Thanks for staying, Pep..” he murmured.

“You’re welcome, Tony,” she whispered back, brushing her thumb across his knuckles. A short while later she felt his hand go slack in hers, confirmation that he’d finally drifted off. Pepper switched off the lamp next to her and scooted forward until she was lying down. She stared up at the ceiling above her and marveled at just what her life had become within the last year.

This wasn’t her job. Her job was to corral Tony into the right meetings, to make sure he made it to his appointments on time, to snag the interest of prospective investors and then smooth things over when Tony ruffled their feathers the wrong way. Her job was to set up brunches and dinners and galas with the most important people from all over the world, to keep things running smoothly and efficiently when her boss disappeared for days down in his lab, to make sure he hadn’t worked himself to death under the guise of bringing him coffee. What she had done that night-- comforting him, holding his hand, _ kissing him _\-- that wasn’t her job.

  
  


But.. maybe it wouldn’t be so bad if it was.

  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> That's all! Not great but that's okay haha, I'm slowly getting back into writing (and by slowly I mean writing something every two months lol). Thanks for reading, now go have a lovely day :)


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